


Compound Fever

by Loki_Is_Life



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Nightmares, Sickfic, Slow Burn, gender-neutral
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 12:18:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17642663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loki_Is_Life/pseuds/Loki_Is_Life
Summary: The Reader (You) is part of the Avengers Initiative, working side by side with Earth's mightiest heroes. Including someone who isn't an Avenger. You and Loki have barely talked despite living at the compound together for six months. But when the rest of the team gets called for a mission, and you're stuck home sick, that might have to change.You don't want to be babied, and Loki wants to stay away from you. When your fever gets to high for even you to handle, you and Loki have to learn how to get along.





	1. Waking Up

**Author's Note:**

> No physical descriptions of the reader, and I kept it gender-neutral. Only thing really going on is that this character has sleeping trouble (Nightmares).

Sunshine warmed your face. In the background, the delicious smell of coffee as well as the sizzling sound of bacon. Once again, you had fallen asleep in the common area. Opening your eyes slowly you saw Steve and Bucky cooking together. Sitting up you gently called “How’s my favorite power couple?” Steve blushed. “How’s the couch?” Bucky retorted. The popping of your back as you stretched answered that question. “You know, you should really be sleeping in your bed” Steve lectured. He was always chiding the other Avengers for something or another, so he earned the nickname “Mom” from you. Bucky really only got onto Steve about things.

 

Steve was Mom, Tony was Dad, and Peter was the baby of the family. Wanda was like the older sister who moved out to live with her boyfriend. Clint, and Bruce were the fun Uncles. Natasha became the cool aunt, and Thor was like an older brother. All the other Avengers were part of your big, complicated family. There was however, one person who didn’t seem to want to be in the family.

 

Loki Odinson.

 

He was polite enough. Never gave any trouble, but he never talked to anyone except occasionally Thor. Not that you could really blame him, most of the other Avengers still hated him from the Attack on New York. At the time of the attack you had been deep in the Amazon rain forest doing research and helping conservation efforts. When Loki had moved into the compound with Thor, you had a strange feeling whenever you saw him. You told yourself it was your gut telling you to stay away. This theory make sense after all, he had (Natasha had told you shortly after he moved in) killed 80 people in two day then killed hundreds more in the attack.

 

Still, sometimes you would realize that you had been staring at him, or vice versa. Then both of you would look away, and there would be a strange feeling in your stomach. Every other Avenger told you to stay away from him, except Thor who hoped you would befriend his brother. Then again most of the other Avengers hated him with a fiery passion.

 

As Steve finished his lecture you grabbed a cup of coffee. “I thought you didn’t drink coffee” came a smooth voice from the doorway. Loki entered the kitchen in his sauntering way as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Bucky looked into your mug “He’s right, when did you start drinking coffee? I thought you had cut off your caffeine intake?” Sipping the bitter liquid you winced “I need it this morning”. Steve gave you a knowing look. The only person in the compound who knew about your sleeping trouble was Steve. He had happened upon you having a nightmare after wandering the halls, unable to sleep.

 

You avoided his eyes. He had been pressing you to talk to a therapist about your nightmares since they were disrupting your sleep so much, but you didn’t want to start the process of finding the right therapist. Really, you knew better, you were also unsure if you wanted anyone else to find out.

 

Walking around the kitchen island you grabbed a fruit from the center bowl. Alternating between nibbling on an apple and sipping coffee, you watched Loki from the corner of your eye. He sat on the stool furthest from you eating grapes. Your eyes followed the path of his fingers as they plucked a grape from the stem traveled up, sliding the fruit between his thin lips. Snapping dragged back your attention.

 

“Earth to Commando, you there?”  _ Tony _ had entered the room and was snapping to get your attention. Sitting up straighter you nodded “Tired” you shrugged. Wrong answer. Steve’s facial expression was a cross between the eyebrows of disappointment, puppy eyes of concern, and frown of frustration. All combining to form the ultimate Steve Mom-look. Tony went to grab the coffee pot but stopped when he saw Bucky hovering over the pot as though it were his child. Passive-Aggressively Tony began talking about getting a second coffee pot because  _ someone _ , he wasn’t naming who, was hoarding the coffee.

 

Steve went around the complaining Tony sat down between you and Loki. “Hey” he set down his glass of juice. It seemed every time he gave someone a heart-to-heart it started with him saying “Hey” and wearing a soft shirt. Just by looking you could tell that was a soft shirt. “I know you’ve been having some issues with your nightmares, but you can’t sleep on the couch forever”. You nodded. “I know Steve, it just seems like I either have a bad nights sleep on the couch or a worse nights sleep in my bed”. Steve gave you a gentle pat on the back “You can talk to me anytime okay? Even if it’s the middle of the night or you’re on a mission in Moscow”. You laughed “Thanks Steve”. Steve went to intercept the argument between Tony and Bucky.

 

Walking over to the sink you rinsed out your mug. Loki came up behind you with his now empty bowl “Do you know if the dishwashing machine is clean or dirty?” He put emphasis on the last part of the sentence. A shiver went up your spine. “It’s dirty” you turned putting your mug in the dishwasher you saw Loki give a mild shiver. Did you have the same effect on him? Leaving the kitchen to visit the training room, you grabbed your half-eaten apple. Just to test a theory, you took a small bite, glancing his way to see if he was watching you.

 

He had already gone.


	2. Fahrenheit 100

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The reader has a nightmare and wakes up sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is shorter than the previous one, but the story is going to pick up pace more after the next chapter.

Standing at the foot of your bed you felt your heart beat faster. Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.  _ Come on, it’s not so bad! _ You tried giving yourself a pep talk  _ Just spend one night in your bed, to show that you can _ ! Not feeling very pepped or convinced, you slowly crawled under the covers. Immediately your back, and neck felt amazing. A small moan escaped your lips as your body relaxed into the mattress.

 

Your main light was off but you left the small lamp on your nightstand on. Waking in the middle of the night to a pitch-dark room was not very pleasant. Especially if someone just had a nightmare. It felt like hours, you were rolling around in your bed trying to fall asleep. Suddenly you remembered a lotion you had gotten on your birthday from Steve. Reaching into the drawer of your nightstand you pulled out the tall, purple bottle. Lathering some into your hands you took a deep breath in through the nose. The Lavender-Vanilla was such a soothing scent you almost immediately fell asleep.

 

_ Snow landed on the cobblestone street as you shivered on the curb. Your clothes were ragged, and much to thin for the freezing weather. Around you were boxes of matches. You recognized this. This dream was obviously some weird twist on a story you had once read as a child. _

_ As people walked by you tried to offer them matches to buy, but they walked past as though you were invisible. No matter what you did, people walked past you as though they were both blind and deaf to you. Your hands were becoming too numb to hold the matchboxes. Sitting on the curb once more, you struck a match. _

_ The warmth helped you, until it burnt out. Soon you were frantically striking matches, seeking warmth in desperation. Last of the matches burnt, you cried. After remembering the end of the story you cried harder. There were no more people on the street. Just you, numb from cold, sitting on the curb. _

 

Cold. There was no warm sunshine. It was cold, dim, and you were shivering. The sheen of sweat on your skin should have meant you were hot, instead you were as ice cold as your dream. At least it wasn’t a full fledged nightmare. Just a bad dream.

***

 

Getting out of bed was harder than you anticipated. You felt weak and the air outside your blankets was colder than the fridge. Grabbing your phone you sent a text:

 

**Me** : Think I’m sick, do you have a thermometer?

**Black Widow Baby** : Yep

**Me** :...

**Me** : Can I borrow it?

**Black Widow Baby** : Can you?

**Me** : May I!

**Black Widow Baby** : Lol, ok you want me to drop it off?

**Me** : Yes please

**Me** : I’m cold

**Black Widow Baby** : Hi cold, I’m Natasha

 

Maybe Natasha was the Dad of the group after all.

 

***

 

Checking the thermometer Natasha frowned. “How bad is it?” You leaned forward to get a better look. Natasha leaned back “Your sick  мой друг”. Turning over the thermometer to you. Your eyes widened at the sight of your temperature “Holy Crow!” Natasha leaned forward in your desk chair that she had pulled beside your bed “Keep an eye on that temperature. I don’t want you to die of a fever while I’m gone”. You frowned “Where are you going?” Natasha tilted her head “If I told you it wouldn’t be a secret mission”. Flopping into your pillows, you groaned in defeat “Steve’s going to go crazy over this”.

“Actually you’ll be alone in the compound”

“Alone?”

“Steve, Bucky, and I are going on a classified mission. No clue when we’ll be back. Clint is going back to his family and Tony is going on some sort of getaway with Pepper.”

“That still leaves Thor?”  _ And Loki _ you thought.

Natasha smiled “Well I guess I was wrong, you won’t be completely alone”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have school tomorrow so I'll try to update again today because it will be harder for me to write tomorrow. We are getting closer to the chapters I already have written!

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a multi-chapter fic. I already have a lot of the rest finished, I just need to put it all together. I will update as often as I can.
> 
> Tried to keep this as gender-neutral as possible, also without using Y/N. It's hard but I think I've been doing a good job. It may change but I will try to keep this as general as possible with no physical descriptions. Also if I have any really bad errors, feel free to tell me so I can fix them.
> 
> Thank you!


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